On the strength of a tireless defense that has been stellar in the past few games, the Boston University women’s soccer team continued its winning ways in the America East by defeating the University of Maine 2–0 and the University of Vermont 2–1 in overtime.
On Thursday night, the Terriers (7–5–1, 3–0–0 America East) entered their match against Maine with newfound confidence and an outpouring of goals from their previous two games.
“You start to see that we are playing a little bit more like a team,” said BU coach Nancy Feldman. “I think we look more like a team than we did four weeks ago.”
The Terriers were slow to score as a result of Maine’s stout defense. The Black Bears were not only able to defend early, but also pushed the ball deep into the BU half of the field. This penetration was quickly defended by the Terriers’ back line that played phenomenally.
“I thought the back four and the goal keeper played great,” Feldman said. “I thought it was a very solid clean game by them.” The Terriers only allowed one shot in the match, which junior goalkeeper Andrea Green stopped. BU took eight shots throughout the game.
As the game went on and the Terriers continued to wear down the Maine defense, they caught a break on a ball that was rolling loose in the box for junior midfielder Kylie Strom to put away. The play originated with a run on the right side of the field that led to a cross, which was deflected off of junior defender Erin Mullen for Strom to fire into the goal for her first goal of the season.
“I was a late runner … and it was sitting on a platter for me,” Strom said. “We worked on those exact balls in practice yesterday.”
At that point, the Black Bears’ defense was seemingly at its breaking point. Just two minutes later on a corner kick, the ball was yet again rolling around the box with frantic play from each side until junior forward Madison Clemens put the ball in the net for her team-leading fourth goal of the season. Clemens was a force in the box all game long, taking three of the Terriers’ eight shots.
BU enforced its will on its opponents by winning both the shot and corner kick differentials. The Terriers were awarded three corner kicks in the match as opposed to the Black Bears’ two.
Moving into Sunday’s game at the University of Vermont, both teams faced wet conditions, but that would not stop the Terriers from pulling out a victory late in the match.
The Terriers started slowly, failing to score until late in the second half.
On the strength of their 13 shots taken, the Terriers pushed into the Catamounts’ defense and put pressure on their goalkeeper to make saves. As the second half wound down, BU was once again pushing into the Vermont defense when sophomore forward Taylor Krebs crossed the ball into the box.
Clemens took that cross and fired a low shot that snuck past UVM goalkeeper Ally Ramos for her fifth goal of the season.
With just over a minute remaining in the match, the Catamounts were awarded a corner kick that was passed in and crossed by senior defender Megan Rozulmalski. The ball was headed several times and found its way to the net on a shot by freshman defender Zoe Boyd before time expired in the half.
This goal sent the game into overtime where Clemens once again was able to provide a crucial goal.
On a pass from the middle of the pitch, Clemens lost a defender and fired a strike from 20 yards that perfectly hit the upper left portion of the net. With her team-best sixth goal of the season and second of the match, Clemens has solidified herself as a focal point in the Terriers’ offense, coming up big in the match’s critical moments.
This goal, coming in overtime, also served as the golden goal, keeping the Terriers perfect in conference play this season and extending their America East Conference winning streak to 26 games.
The Terriers will look to continue their superb play on Thursday night and stay perfect in the America East Conference as they travel to Baltimore, Md., to take on the University of Maryland-Baltimore County.
